Continuing Medical Education as a Translational Science Opportunity for Health Communication Researchers: The BCERP Model

Health communication researchers often work across health issues to engage in research that bridges distance between bench scientists and practitioners. This translational activity is essential to increase the likelihood that emerging science from the laboratory makes it into the hands of health professionals who can integrate it into their everyday practice with patients. An underutilized translational approach by communication researchers is the development of continuing medical education (CME) opportunities that incorporate a communication science approach to the uptake of recommended practices based on emerging science. This manuscript explains the nature of translational science, highlights the role of CME as an integral strategy for engaging in it, and then provides the exemplar of a training and evaluation project funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences for the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP). Lessons learned are discussed as they relate to developing a translational opportunity for the BCERP.

Augmented Versus Virtual Reality in Education: An Exploratory Study Examining Science Knowledge Retention When Using Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Mobile Applications

The propagation of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications that leverage smartphone technology has increased along with the ubiquity of smartphone adoption. Although AR and VR technologies have been widely utilized in the educational domain, there remains a dearth of empirical research examining the differences in educational impact across AR and VR technologies. The purpose of our exploratory study was to address this gap in the literature by comparing AR and VR technologies with regard to their impact on learning outcomes, such as retention of science information. Specifically, we use a two-condition (AR vs. VR) between-subjects' design to test college students' science-knowledge retention in response to both auditory and visual information presented on a Samsung S4 smartphone app. Our results (N = 109) suggest that VR is more immersive and engaging through the mechanism of spatial presence. However, AR seems to be a more effective medium for conveying auditory information through the pathway of spatial presence, possibly because of increased cognitive demands associated with immersive experiences. Thus, an important implication for design is that educational content should be integrated into visual modalities when the experience will be consumed in VR, but into auditory modalities when it will be consumed in AR.